Quite Altered

Chapter Three

Caryn sat in her bed in her pajamas, her blankets strewn all around her. According to the Beatles clock mounted on her wall, it was 7:20: almost time to leave for Lily’s. The clock ticked at her accusingly, demanding Caryn to get out of bed and get ready for school, but she wasn’t really in the mood for following orders. Then again, she never had been, especially since last year.

It hadn’t really hit her until now, what the presence of this other world meant. Her brief experience in it had been enough. She didn’t want to go through the mirror ever again: she didn’t want to know how she lived differently there, she didn’t want to know if her father was still alive over there, or whether her mother was no longer an almost-empty shell of who she had been before the accident. The prospect terrified her. And Caryn was never terrified.

Running a hand through her short, light-brown hair, she sighed heavily as she heard hesitant footsteps in the carpeted hallway outside. Sure enough, there was a timid knock at the door, which Caryn didn’t answer.

When Caryn had lost her father in a car accident last year, her father hadn’t been the only thing she had lost. They had got the phone call and had rushed to the hospital, only to see him in a coma, and covered in tubes and IVs. He was pronounced dead shortly after they had arrived. Caryn had whispered goodbye, but she knew her father most likely hadn’t heard her.

Ever since, her mother had never been the same. All the light had faded from her eyes, and she was no longer her sarcastic, joking self. Any time Caryn had asked her a question, she only replied in placid one or two-word answers. Both Caryn and her mother were seeing a therapist now, but Caryn disliked her, and it didn’t seem to be helping her mother at all either.

Maybe going to that other world would help, she thought briefly, and then mentally slapped herself from even considering such a thought. She knew that no matter what may be in the other universe, she couldn’t let it change her, because that wasn’t the way things worked. She didn’t want to go off into some other universe and cause trouble both for herself and possibly everyone in the other “dimension”-- she already had enough problems of her own.

With a sigh, Caryn pushed aside her covers and reluctantly got out of bed. She knew that if she never got up, her mother wouldn’t be there to make sure she actually got to school, anyway.

***

“So… you ready, Lily?” Lexie asked as they stood in a loose circle in front of the mirror in Lily’s attic the next day.

“I guess, but we have to stick together. We should find each other as soon as we get to school. Meet by the windows by my locker?” Lily suggested. Lexie nodded. “Don’t forget you may have to knock out A.U me.” Lily reminded Isabelle and Caryn.

“Oh, don’t you worry,” Caryn said with an evil smile creeping onto her face. “We will.”

“All right, now go. We’ll see you tomorrow. Try to stay out of trouble!” Isabelle said as Lily and Lexie went through the mirror.

***

The first thing Lily saw was that horrible Twilight-infested bedroom. The next thing she was aware of was the Justin Bieber music playing from her iPod.

“No, no, NO!” she cried in disgust as she ran over and yanked it off of the dock, abruptly cutting off Justin’s lovesick crooning. She scrolled down the playlist and tried not to vomit. The whole playlist was Bieb-tastic.

“Damn it!” she said as she tossed the iPod back on to her desk. She sat down in her desk chair and looked around her room. Why Twilight? she thought miserably. Why couldn’t it just be some other crappy romance novel?